UK churches have welcomed a report calling for radical economic change.

Prosperity and Justice: A plan for a new economy concludes the work of the Institute for Public Policy Research Commission on Economic Justice which has analysed every aspect of the UK economy since autumn 2016.

The report argues that the economy is not working for millions of people and needs fundamental reform.

‘Average earnings have stagnated for more than a decade; young people are set to be poorer than their parents; the nations and regions of the UK are diverging further. Many of the causes of the UK’s poor economic performance – particularly its weaknesses in productivity, investment and trade – go back 30 years or more,’ it said. ‘Fundamental reform has happened twice before in the last century following periods of crisis – with the Attlee government’s Keynesian reforms in the 1940s and the Thatcher government’s free market reforms in the 1980s. Ten years after the financial crash, change of this magnitude is needed again.’

The report makes more than 70 recommendations including: an immediate increase of the minimum wage to the real Living Wage, improvements to zero-hour contracts, and replacing inheritance tax with a ‘lifetime gifts’ tax.

‘One can argue around the individual proposals but the diagnosis is both obvious and profound,’ said Paul Morrison, Policy Adviser for the Joint Public Issues Team (JPIT) which responds to current social, political and policy issues on behalf of the United Reformed Church, Baptist Union, the Church of Scotland, and the Methodist Church.

‘The report recognises that the way we organise markets, wages, wealth and taxation is not inevitable but the result of choices – choices that need to be revisited and remade so they can serve the common good. Last year employment increased to record levels and the nation’s wealth increased by 8%.  Yet at the same time the number of children living in poverty increased to four million, foodbank visits rose to 1.3 million and the incomes of the poorest fell. The current economic settlement is clearly failing the poorest. God continues to give abundantly, but our choices as a nation ensure that increasing numbers struggle because they have too little.’

The report recommends a ten-point plan to achieve the reforms: reshaping the economy, securing good pay and good jobs, improvements to the private sector, promoting competition and protecting consumers, increasing public investment, strengthening the financial system, tackling wealth inequality, fair and simple taxes, environmental sustainability, and devolution.

^{Picture: Nick Fewings/Unsplash}